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http://opr.sagepub.com/content/1/4/316The online version of this article can be found at:
DOI: 10.1177/2041386611418393
2011 1: 316 originally published online 22 September 2011Organizational Psychology ReviewRobert E. Wood, Nadin Beckmann and John R. Rossiter
Management humor : Asset or liability?
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Article
Management humor: Asset
or liability?
Robert E. WoodUniversity of Melbourne
Nadin BeckmannDurham University
John R. RossiterUniversity of Wollongong
Abstract
Should managers deliberately employ humor to persuade and motivate staff? A framework ispresented for analyzing the role of humor in managerial communications. The framework includesthe presenter, recipient, message, and medium and elaborates cognitive and emotional reactions tohumor by recipients. The framework is applied to analyses of the likely impacts of humor in
problem solving and creativity. Facilitators and constraints for the effects of humor in managerialcommunications are discussed.
Keywords
managerial humor, cognitiveaffective variables, communication, persuasion, problem solving,creativity
Paper received 17 February 2011; revised version accepted 6 July 2011.
Humor in the form of jokes, puns, funny remarks,and cartoons is a common behavior that flows
freely and rapidly through organizations, cutting
across authority and status lines (Barsoux, 1996).
Humor often presents challenges to managerial
plans by highlighting inconsistencies, paradoxes,
and ambiguities (Hatch & Ehrlich, 1993). At the
individual level, responses to humor engageboth cognitive and emotional processes. Despite
its common occurrence and unique properties,
humor has received relatively little research
attention by organizational scholars, leading
Martin (2007), following a comprehensive re-
view of humor research, to conclude that humor
Corresponding author:
Robert Wood, Melbourne Business School, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC 3053, Australia.Email: [email protected]
Organizational Psychology Review
1(4) 316338
The Author(s) 2011
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remains a fruitful domain for industrial-
organizational psychologists to explore (p. 361).
The lack of research evidence for the effects
of humor in organizations has not been an
impediment to the adoption of organizationalprograms that employ humor, presumably with
the expectation of producing positive outcomes.
Organizational programs based on humor
include, for example: humor rooms (Kodak
Eastman, Hewlett Packard), corporate come-
dians to facilitate communications (American
Cancer Society, American Academy of Physi-
cian Assistants), clowns to assist in therapy
during disaster management (Red Nose Res-
ponse Inc.), the use of humor consultants in theconduct of workshops for staff who are being
laid off (Owens-Corning Fiberglass), and the
utilization of humor in customer service (from
a SouthWest Airlines announcement: There
may be 50 ways to leave your lover, but there
are only 4 ways out of this airplane).
Definitions of humor have focused on the
event or message intended as humor and the
different responses to that message. Our interest
is on the use of humor as a management strat-egy and we are therefore primarily concerned
with the properties of the humor messages.
However, humor messages do not exist inde-
pendently of responses and consequences of
humor. We therefore need to study the accom-
panying responses and the processes by which
they are produced as well as the consequences
of these responses.
The definition of humor responses has a rich
and varied history, however, most contempo-rary researchers agree that the experience of
humor involves the interaction of both cogni-
tive and affective processes (Martin, 2007;
Shammi & Stuss, 1999). Neuropsychological
researchers identify the right frontal lobethe
region of the brain in which the integration of
cognitive and affective information is believed
to occuras the region that mediates humor
comprehension. Damage in the right frontal
lobe has been shown to disrupt the appreciationof humor (Shammi & Stuss, 2003). Humor
responses include laughing and smiling plus the
accompanying range of cognitive assessments
and emotional responses, which may include
either positive or negative emotions. Most
commonly studied are positive emotionalresponses to acts of humor, including joy, ela-
tion, and relaxation that accompany genuine,
spontaneous, and unforced laughter and smil-
ing. On the negative side, humor that belittles or
excludes individuals can produce emotional
responses such as frustration, anxiety, stress,
and other forms of negative affect, which may
be expressed through forced laughter or smil-
ing. However, there is little research that
examines the potentially destructive effects ofnegative forms of humor (Wood, Beckmann, &
Pavlakis, 2007).
Managerial humor intended to produce the
responses referred to before, includes the
insertion of jokes or other forms of humor into
communications, particularly during attempts
of influence. Our discussion addresses humor as
a managerial communication process and, in
order to understand its effectiveness, the
responses by the recipient or audience to humormessages, the processes by which they were
produced, and the outcomes or consequences of
these responses. As a communication process
the perception of humor will be influenced by
the presenter, the recipient, the message, and
the medium. However, these effects will be
mediated through the encoding of the situation,
self-assessments, affective reactions, and goals,
values, and standards of the target or recipient
of the humor. Therefore, our contribution is to present a theoretical framework for analyzing
the effects of humor in management communi-
cations and other contexts, and the processes
leading to different outcomes. The proposed
framework can be used to design studies for
understanding and evaluating the effects of
humor in organizations and to accumulate the
results of those and other studies.
The framework is presented in the next
section. In order to illustrate the application ofthe framework it is then used to identify the
Wood et al. 317
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processes and potential impacts of humor in
problem solving and creativity. For each of these
two topics, we identify constraints through the
consideration of potential moderators. Although
the level of research knowledge is not sufficientto allow definitive conclusions, the available
studies provide provocative ideas deserving of
further research and we use them to formulate
some useful predictions that can be employed to
guide future research.
General framework
Our framework for analyzing the role of humor
in managerial communications is presented inFigure 1. Figure 1 is partly based on McGuires
(1985) analyses of the communication process
and models of cognitive and affective process-
ing dynamics in social cognitive theory (Ban-
dura, 1986; Mischel & Shoda, 1998). More
specifically, Figure 1 identifies the inputs to the
humor communication process, stages in the
cognitive appraisal of humor plus the related
cognitiveaffective responses, and the potential
outcomes of that process. The inputs includethe presenter, the recipient, the message, and
the medium. The reactions are described as
stages in the cognitive appraisals of humorous
communications, including reception and
acceptance, leading to outcomes that include
opinion and behavior change of the recipient,
and problem solving and creativity. Opinion
and behavior change are typically the most
immediate aims of humor. Problem solving and
creativity are more inclusive behavioral pro-cesses and outcomes that may include humor as
part of communication and influence sub-
processes. The role of humor in these more
inclusive processes is discussed in a later sec-
tion as examples of the application of the
framework presented in Figure 1.
The communication and influence process
Managerial communications can include thetransmission of facts, procedures, or opinions
(Machlup, 1980), and will often include the aim
of persuading or influencing staff to adopt a
particular point of view or to undertake some
particular action. The transmission of facts or
keeping staff informed will require under-standing, and may not necessarily extend to the
need for persuasion to a point of view or
influencing behavior. More commonly manag-
ers will want to go beyond understanding as an
outcome of their communications with their
staff and will want to persuade staff to accept a
point of view or influence their attitudes and
behavior. Creative ideas and innovations often
have to be sold internally. Decisions fol-
lowing problem solving have to be imple-mented by others in the firm and this is best
achieved if these others are persuaded in favor
of the decision.
Humor has been found to impact on the
understanding, persuasiveness, and influence of
communications. Work by Schmidt and col-
leagues (Schmidt, 1994, 2002; Schmidt & Wil-
liams, 2001), among others to be discussed later,
shows that humorous messages are better under-
stood and more likely to be recalled than non-humorous messages. Evidence that humor
facilitates influence comes from a range of areas
(Martin 2007; Vuorela, 2005). In negotiations,
for example, humor is often used to deal with
problems and tensions by allowing individuals to
express their views in a safe way (Adelsward &
Oberg, 1998; Mulkay, Clark, & Pinch, 1993). The
use of humor has been shown to make presenters
more persuasive and negotiators more effective
(Filipowicz, 2002; OQuin & Aronoff, 1981).Although humor occurs as a message vari-
able, it can also interact with the presenter
variable, as well as the medium in which it is
employed. Furthermore, the state of the recipient
or audience also has to be taken into account.
Therefore, humor is potentially relevant for all
of the input variables shown in Figure 1 and their
impacts on understanding, or influence.
Input variables. Down the left side of Figure 1 arethe input variables from the well-known
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Inputvariables
Personfactors
Presenter(sender)
Credibility
Attraction
Recipient(receiver)
Priorbeliefs
Discriminativecompetenc
e
BigFivepersonalitytraits
Situationalfactors
Message(withhumor
insertionopportunities)
Type(valence/target)
Complexity
Spacing
Medium(ofbusiness
communication)
Directness
Outputva
riables
Proximaloutcomes
Opinion
change
Behavio
rchange
Distaloutcomes
Problem
solving
Creativity
Humorresponse
Laughter
Smiling
Responsevariables
Cognitiveaffectiveresponses
Encodingpatterns
Self-assessments
(categorization
s,efficacy)
Affectivereactions
(emotionsand
moods)
Goals,valuesand
standards
Responsevariables
Stagesofcognitive
appraisal
Reception
Attention
Comprehensio
n
Acceptance
Convergence
Retention
Retrieval
Figure 1. Overall framework for analyzing the role of humor in management applications.
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Umorul La Manageri
6/24
Shannon and Weaver (1949) model of informa-
tion transfer. We start with the message, which
concerns various types of humor, including
both positive and negative humor. We then con-
sider the presenter who we assume to be a man-ager. Different pairings of the manager and
staff can create a range of social contexts in
which management communications take
place, including one on one and one to many,
as in a small group or network. Finally, we dis-
cuss the alternative media for managerial com-
munications that include humor. The reactions
of the recipients (that is the audience, who we
assume to be staff or other members of the man-
agers organization) leading to the outcomesshown in Figure 1 are elaborated and discussed
in a later section.
The message. The content of a humor mes-
sage can be either positive or negative in tone
(Kirsh & Kuiper, 2003; Martin, Puhlik-Doris,
Larsen, Gray, & Weir, 2003) and targeted at
either the self or some other person (Martin et
al., 2003), creating four types of humor. Posi-
tive humor directed at the self (Type 1) canbe self-enhancing or a form of coping that helps
minimize stress and facilitates balanced reac-
tions to challenges. When directed at others,
positive humor (Type 2) such as jokes and ban-
ter can reduce interpersonal tensions and facil-
itate interpersonal and social relationships. In
group settings, positive humor can also help
raise group morale, increase identity and cohe-
siveness by making people feel included in the
group and reduce tension during conflicts(Kuiper, Grimshaw, Leite, & Kirsh, 2004).
Spontaneous positive humor often creates a
temporary feeling of community amongst those
individuals who share in the joke, which may
become more established with the repeated
sharing of humor amongst members of a group.
The two types of negative humor include
self-deprecating humor (Type 3) and negative
humor with others as the target (Type 4),
respectively. Self-deprecating humor, such asthe use of self-disparaging and ingratiating
comments made during attempts to gain the
approval of others are often viewed by others
as strained and obsequious and may be seen
as evidence of emotional neediness and low
self-esteem in the presenter (Kuiper et al.,2004). Self-defeating humor is often used to
mask negative feelings and anxieties or to avoid
dealing constructively with problems (Kuiper et
al., 2004; Martin et al., 2003). Negative humor
that is targeted at others includes boorish humor
and the aggressive use of humor in which the
presenter displays a lack of concern or respect
for others, including teasing, ridicule, dispar-
agement, and sarcastic comments (Kuiper et
al., 2004). Continual targeting of individualswith negative humor will typically alienate
those targeted and, depending upon the recipi-
ents status relative to the presenter, will impair
social and interpersonal relationships between
the presenter and recipient (Kuiper et al.,
2004; Martin, 2007).
Humor has been found to serve many dif-
ferent communication functions and the impacts
vary with the type of humor. For example,
studies have shown that positive humor can beused to provide criticism in socially acceptable
ways (Grugulis, 2002; Holmes & Marra, 2006),
highlight ambiguity (Grugulis, 2002) or devia-
tions from expectations (Ullian, 1976), and to
suggest alternative approaches to problems
(Grugulis, 2002; Hatch, 1997). However, not all
humor, even when it is of a similar type, has the
same effect. For example, although negative
forms of humor are often associated with nega-
tive outcomes, an experimental study of nega-tive humor directed at others (i.e., Type 4) by
Dews, Kaplan, and Winner (1995) found that
ironic criticism of poor performance was per-
ceived as funnier and less insulting and had a less
damaging effect on the presenterrecipient
relationship than literal criticism. Dews et al.
linked these effects to the fact that the use of
irony protected the recipients self-concept bet-
ter than literal criticism.
The type of information to be conveyed isalso an important variable. Although, humorous
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messages are recalled at a higher rate, this is at
the expense of the nonhumorous part of the
communication. Based on a series of experi-
mental studies in which participants had to
learn and recall lists of sentences under a rangeof conditions (e.g., free or cued recall) Schmidt
(1994) reports that humorous sentences were
recalled at a higher rate than nonhumorous
sentences but only when they were presented in
the same list. In fact, when presented with both
humorous and nonhumorous sentences partici-
pants recalled humorous sentences at the
expense of nonhumorous sentences. Memory-
enhancing effects of humor were also reported
for the recall of cartoons (Schmidt, 2002;Schmidt & Williams, 2001), for tendentious
(aggressive and sexual) humor (Derks, Gardner,
& Agarwal, 1998) and for puns (Lippman &
Dunn, 2000). Based on the insight of humorous
messages being memorized at a higher rate but
also at the expense of nonhumorous messages,
Martin (2007) concludes that humor should be
used sporadically (not constantly) when lectur-
ing and with regard to important concepts and
not background or peripheral information.The complexity of the information to be
communicated is an example of a message
variable that could be expected to moderate the
effects of humor. A possible reason why humor
should not be used when transmitting complex
information is the indirect effects of humor
through mood manipulation. Humorous inser-
tions, either at the beginning of or during
communication, usually have the effect of
putting the recipient in a relatively positivemood. People in a positive mood tend to engage
in more superficial processing of information
(Worth & Mackie, 1987) and indeed a series of
experiments by Forgas has demonstrated that a
negative mood may actually be more beneficial
in this situation. Research with the affect
infusion model (Forgas, 1995) has shown that
people induced to be in a negative mood just
prior to reception of new, quite detailed infor-
mation tend to be more vigilant and systematicin processing it. Negative mood is typically
induced in these experiments by giving people
bogus negative feedback about their perfor-
mance in a test. Negative incidents like this are
not uncommon in the day-to-day work of
employees. As Forgas (1998, p. 1) explains it,a negative mood is a signal for people to
watch out, be careful. The insertion of a very
serious or even moderately fear-inducing state-
ment at the beginning of the complex informa-
tion, the direct opposite of humor, could
actually be a facilitating tactic.
We will see, in the discussions of influence
and creativity, that deliberate induction of a
positive mood through personally rewarding
comments or through the use of humor, canindeed be facilitative of the intended outcomes.
But for communicating complex, new infor-
mation, the induction of positive mood via
humor inserts would seem to be a constraint, or
even a liability to the reception and acceptance
of the information being communicated.
The main mechanism by which humor con-
tent appears to facilitate the transmission of
simple, straightforward information is through
the initiation and maintenance of attention. Aninsightful review by Zillmann and Bryant
(1989) indicates that positive humor, either
unrelated to the topic or related but non-
distortive, which irony or satire can often be,
and suitably spaced humor rather than massed
humor, are the effective variables. Negative
humor is to be avoided unless the presenter is
sure that the entire audience is sufficiently
sophisticated to comprehend it. Short periodic
insertions of jokes or humorous remarks that punctuate the straightforward transmission of
information are also more effective than one big
joke at the front. Although the up-front joke
might have a positive effect by inducing a pos-
itive mood, the effect is likely to be temporary.
How spaced should humor content be? A cue
might be taken from a survey of award-
winning university lecturers (by Javidi, Downs,
& Nussbaum, cited in Boverie, Hoffman, Klein,
McCelland, & Oldknow, 1994) indicating thatthey insert a humorous comment approximately
Wood et al. 321
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every 7 minutes. In the written version, this
might translate to every second page or so.
Probably through its ability to maintain atten-
tion, positive humor seems to render the com-
munication more enjoyable, which is perhapspartly the basis of the awards for teaching (Zill-
mann & Bryant, 1989). As noted, attention
facilitation appears to be the main process
through which positive humor makes commu-
nication more enjoyable. However, when we
turn to influence in the next section, it will be
seen that other processes may also facilitate the
effects of humor.
Proposition 1: The influence effect of manage-rial humor will be moderated by the complex-
ity of the information being communicated.
Specifically, humor inserts will facilitate the
communication of simple rather than complex
information through the initiation and mainte-
nance of attention.
Proposition 2: For simple information with an
obvious message, the influence effect of man-
agerial humor will be a function of the type
of humor used (positive humor is better thannegative humor) and the spacing of the humor
inserts (spaced humor is better than massed
humor).
Humor in the service of message acceptance
has been most widely tested in studies of
influence and persuasion, particularly in the
applied field of advertising. The general con-
clusion from advertising research is that humor
is a tactic of quite unreliable standing; some-times it can work surprisingly well and at others
embarrassingly badly, and the contingent con-
ditions for its effective use are difficult to
identify (Rossiter & Percy, 1997; Weinberger
& Gulas, 1992). This is not the case in inter-
personal influence (Rossiter & Percy, 1997).
There are a number of clearly anticipated
situations that arise in the course of inter-
personal influence in which the presenters use
of humor can be a reliable and effective tactic.One is where the presenter expects that the
recipients or audiences true opinion would be
suppressed if directly asked for, so that an
oblique and humorous entry may be more likely
to bring out the true opinion (Foot, 1991). The
type of humor that is usually employed in thistactic is sarcasm, which we classify as negative
humor, such as You dont really think that you
need more staff in your department, do you?
when the presenter expects that the recipients of
this question believe exactly that, but would be
hesitant to state it. Negative, sarcastic questions
are often very difficult to evade with a false
answer, hence the logic in their use.
Another situation is when the presenter
expects that recipients will express a contraryopinion to that which he or she wishes to
advocate. The use of ridicule, a form of nega-
tive humor, to diminish or dismiss an opposing
position is one of the oldest rhetorical devices
known and still one of the most effective. It can
even be employed on a mass-audience basis if
the ridicule involves a vivid and memorable
caricature of the opposing position. This is a
technique seen quite regularly in political
advertising, such as the use of a constantly ring-ing cash register to imply the cash draining
effects of an opponents tax proposals. How-
ever, ridicule as a counterargument tactic has
limitations. Ridicule that is seen as personally
directed at a member of the audience or some
other target may evoke an empathic response
by audience members that leads to resistance
to the presenters subsequent suggestion of an
alternative viewpoint. Also, in a group setting,
ridicule may not work when the ridiculed posi-tion is strongly held by the majority of others
present. While tempting to use because it is
such a powerful tactic, humorous derogation
requires pretesting or sound intuition about
going too far or going against too strong a
majority.
Proposition 3: The influence effect of
negative-other humor (e.g., ridicule) will
depend on the match of the humor with the
previously held beliefs of the audience, such
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that the effect will be stronger under high- as
compared to low-matching conditions.
The presenter. The presenter in the current
discussion is the person who occupies a man-agerial role. The role will carry status, knowl-
edge, and performance expectations. Some of
the characteristics that are typically associated
with a managerial role and the individual
occupants of managerial roles are discussed in a
later section as potential moderators of the
effects of humor in the managerial functions of
problem solving and creativity.
In influence and persuasion, the perceived
characteristics of the person presenting themessage are core determinants of the outcome.
Presenter characteristics can be grouped under
the subvariables of visibility, credibility, power,
and attraction (Rossiter & Percy, 1997; see also
McGuire, 1969). Visibility, or being well
known in the celebrity sense, is not relevant in
the usual contexts of internal management,
although it is when addressing external audi-
ences such as investors or the general public.
Credibility comprises the two specific factorsof expertise and objectivity. Superiority humor,
a signal of superior language skills, can be
employed to increase perceived expertise,
especially with a new or occasional audience.
On the other hand, and this is a constraint,
overuse of humor, of any type, runs the risk of
undermining perceived objectivity of the pre-
senter by blurring the recipients or audiences
detection of truthful statements.
Attraction, too, comprises two specific fac-tors, namely, liking and identification through
perceived similarity. Positive-other humor
(Type 2) can be employed to increase the pre-
senters perceived likability. Shared in-
group humorusually positive humor but
sometimes negative humor directed at an out-
group (Type 4)can be employed to increase
perceived similarity between the presenter and
the audience, leading to increased identification
with the presenter and greater acceptance ofwhat the presenter has to say. This has been
described as humor as equalizer (Boverie et
al., 1994). A note here is that the interroga-
tory joke form (Chiaro, 1992) is often not
effective as an equalizer. Interrogatory jokes,
such as How many existentialists does it taketo change a light bulb? can leave the audience
feeling somewhat deficient from not knowing
the answer. Noninterrogatory jokes, on the
other handexaggerations, puns, and irony or
sarcasm, if clearly signaled with tone of voice
so that all recipients will perceive it, and also
out-group ridiculehave the effect of making
the audience feel more like equal participants.
To summarize, the presenter can use differ-
ent types of humor to increase his or her per-ceived expertise or familiarity, particularly with
a new audience. With a familiar audience this
perception has to be periodically maintained
but the presenter should not overdo humor of
any type lest perceived objectivity or trust-
worthiness suffer. If, on the other hand, having
the audience like or identify with the presenter
is thought to assist in acceptance of the advo-
cated viewpoint as research in interpersonal
persuasion settings by Cialdini (1993) suggestsis the case, then positive humor, or, for identi-
fication purposes, negative-other humor (out-
group derogatory humor), should be effective.
Proposition 4: The influence effect of man-
agerial humor will depend upon interactions
of the aims of the presenter (e.g., attraction)
and the type of humor used (positive or nega-
tive self- or other-directed humor). Specifi-
cally, positive humor, as opposed to negativehumor (except for negative out-group ridi-
cule), will foster liking and identification with
the presenter and, as a consequence, enhance
acceptance of the advocated viewpoint.
In organizations, individuals who occupy the
role of leader are expected to influence and
persuade followers towards the goals of orga-
nizations. Effective leaders have been shown to
use more humor than ineffective leaders(Aviolo, Howell, & Sosik, 1999; Holmes &
Wood et al. 323
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Marra, 2006; Priest & Swain, 2002; Sala,
2000); however, as has been stressed earlier, the
effects of humor depend upon the message.
Negative humor directed at others (Type 4) is
associated with less effective leadership, asindexed by lower ratings on leadership beha-
viors, including task and relationship behaviors
(Decker & Rotondo, 2001). Interestingly, gen-
der has been found to moderate the effects of
leader humor on leader performance ratings.
Employing negative humor was especially
detrimental for female leaders (Decker &
Rotondo, 2001). Also, subordinates who
reported using negative humor claimed that
their managers were using negative humor aswell (Decker & Rotondo, 2001). Although
cause and effect cannot be determined based on
this study, it suggests that there is some reci-
procity in perceived humor behavior between
leaders and subordinates.
The medium. The medium is an under-
investigated variable in management, espe-
cially in light of Marshall McLuhans (1964)
dictum that the medium is (and he meantlargely but not completely) the message. Man-
agers have a choice of media through which to
accomplish their activities, including face-to-
face spoken, telephone spoken, written memor-
andum, written e-mail, written personal note,
internal newsletter, external mass media of all
types, and the visual medium of their own
observable actions. Quite obviously, the
medium chosen affects the form of humor sti-
mulus that can be used, namely a spoken, writ-ten, or visual joke, and in some cases affects the
audiences response options to the humor.
There is no direct evidence of the effects that
different media have on the reception and
acceptance of information in messages con-
taining humor. However, the medium chosen
will determine the directness of contact
between the presenter and the audience and
therefore could be expected to influence the
likelihood of a humor response. Our hypothesisis that the use of humor in communications will
have less impact on the reception and accep-
tance of information for indirect media, such as
e-mail, memoranda, newsletters, and even per-
sonal notes. It will more likely have a positive
impact on reception and acceptance when aface-to-face medium is used, where humor can
be used more effectively to create and maintain
attention to the information being communi-
cated. This is because the process can be man-
aged in an ongoing way through the use of
qualifications or supplementary comments,
based on audience reactions to humor inserts.
Humor is less likely to work in written media,
electronic or paper, because the presenter is
much less likely to be able to accurately antici-pate the audiences state of mind and state of
emotion. The positive affect characteristic of
humor, and its defining responses of laughter,
smiling, and cognitive appreciation, is consid-
erably more difficult to elicit universally and
thus reliably in written media.
Although influence can be initiated through
written media, the bulk of these attempts are in
spoken media. Even written initiations are
likely to be followed up by the spoken-mediachannels of a large-meeting address, smaller
group meetings, one-on-one meetings, and
phone calls. Thus, most influence attempts are,
or end up being, live and oral. This presents
opportunities to inject humor, or to withhold it
if it does not appear to be working. Qualitative
analyses of public speeches revealed that man-
agement gurus frequently utilize humor to
communicate their vision and core ideas
(Greatbatch & Clark, 2003). However, an ear-lier review of studies that have examined the
persuasion effects of influential speeches and
essays found no clear superiority of humorous
compared to nonhumorous messages (Weinber-
ger & Gulas, 1992).
Proposition 5: The influence effect of manage-
rial humor will be moderated by the directness
of the medium used. Specifically, face-to-face
oral humor will be more effective than writtenor other less personal sources of humor.
324 Organizational Psychology Review 1(4)
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The recipient. The characteristics of the reci-
pient that impact on their processing and on
their responses to humor will include individual
competencies and dispositions and, particularly
when the recipient is part of an audience, the psychological properties that they assign to
their situation. Among the competencies that
individuals use when processing social infor-
mation and generating the thoughts, emotional
reactions, and actions that define their response
to a situation, discriminative competence (Chiu,
Hong, Mischel, & Shoda, 1995; Shoda, Mis-
chel, & Wright, 1993) seems most relevant for
explaining individual responses to humorous
situations. Discriminative competence refers toindividual sensitivity to subtle cues about the
psychological meaning of a situation, [and] is
an important aspect of adaptive social behavior
and social intelligence (Chiu et al., 1995, p.
49). When confronted with a potentially
humorous situation, such as receiving a sar-
castic email or being told a joke, individuals
with a discriminative facility are better able to
infer the motives and beliefs of other people
and to anticipate the consequences of differentscripts and behaviors than those with less of this
social competence. Chiu et al. (1995) found that
discriminative competence influences encoding
and information-processing strategies in threa-
tening situations. Those with a discriminative
facility were more likely to code information
conditionally, to use monitoring strategies
when information could make a difference to
response choices and to use avoidance strate-
gies when information would have no impacton choice of actions but could add to ones
stress.
If, as Mischel and Shoda argue (Mischel,
1993; Mischel & Shoda, 1998), discriminative
competence is a basic social capability, then we
would expect the effects observed in the Chiu et
al. (1995) studies to generalize to situations that
do not involve threats.
Proposition 6: The effectiveness of manage-rial humor in eliciting a humor response will
be moderated by the discriminative compe-
tence of targeted individuals. Specifically,
individuals with higher levels of discrimina-
tive competence will be better able to encode
a message as humorous or nonhumorous ascompared to their lower level counterparts.
Note, however, discriminative competence
will interact with the characteristics of the
message to determine the attention to the mes-
sage plus the comprehension and acceptance
stages. For example, the levels of discrimination
required in the interpretation of a humor mes-
sage will vary depending upon how obvious the
intended humor is to the audience. When humorrequires the recognition of an incongruity that is
conveyed through a subtle word play or small
changes in tone of voice or facial expression,
discriminative competence levels will be posi-
tively and strongly related to the humor
responses of audience members. Responses to
slapstick and other more obvious attempts at
humor that do not require any great facility in
identifying the intention or the point of the
humorous communication will be more con-sistent across individuals and less influenced by
their level of discriminative competence.
Preferences for the four types of humor
(positive vs. negative and self- vs. other
directed) have also been shown to have signif-
icant relationships with a range of dispositions,
including measures of the Big Five personality
traits (Martin et al. 2003; Saroglou & Scariot,
2002). Openness and agreeableness have been
found to be related to the use and preference for positive humor (self- and/or other directed),
whereas neuroticism and lack of con-
scientiousness are associated with the use and
preference for negative (self- and/or other
directed) humor (Saroglou & Scariot, 2002).
The fifth factor, extraversion, is related to high
levels of humor production behavior. Kuiper
and colleagues (Kirsh & Kuiper, 2003; Kuiper,
Borowicz-Sibenik, 2005; Kuiper et al., 2004;
Kuiper, & Borowicz-Sibenik, 2005) haveexamined relationships between the two higher
Wood et al. 325
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order factors of agency and communionthat
are believed to summarize various combina-
tions of the Big 5 traitsand humor. Their
results show that the positive aspects of agency
and communion are related to the use and pre-ference for positive humor, particularly adap-
tive and socially skilled humor, while the
negative aspects of agency and communion are
related to the use and preference for negative
humor (Kirsh & Kuiper, 2003). Agency and
communion have also been established as
moderators for the facilitative effect of humor
on well-being (Kuiper & Borowicz-Sibenik,
2005; see also Kuiper et al., 2004; Kuiper, &
Borowicz-Sibenik, 2005). For individuals whoare low on both the agency and communion
factors, the relationship between positive
humour and psychological well-being measures
is much stronger than for individuals who are
high on both factors (Kuiper & Borowicz-
Sibenik, 2005). Thus, humour has a much
greater facilitative role on, for example, positive
evaluations of stressful situations and coping
responses when people are lacking the personal
control and social tendencies that might other-wise provide them with the resources needed
for coping.
Proposition 7: The effectiveness of manage-
rial humor in eliciting a humor response will
be moderated by personality traits of the reci-
pient as reflected in the Big Five. More open
and agreeable individuals will prefer positive
managerial humour; while more neurotic and
less conscientious individuals will prefer neg-ative managerial humour.
Although not as fixed as traits, the prior
mood states of recipients will also influence
their reactions to humor, particular when humor
is used in attempts to persuade or influence
individual recipients or a group audience. Of
course, humor may be used to try to make this
mood positive, just as a serious or mildly
threatening opening may be used to make themood more negative. A positive mood, either
induced or judicially chosen in the timing of
communication when mood is likely to be pos-
itive due to naturally occurring circumstances
such as a business lunch, is generally the reci-
pient condition that the presenter wants. Peoplein a positive mood, as we have seen from the
work of Forgas (1995, 1998), are less likely to
carefully scrutinize the incoming information
and are also less likely to generate overt coun-
terarguments (Petty, Schumann, Richman, &
Strathman, 1993). The latter researchers go on to
demonstrate that the positive-mood facilitation
effect on acceptance holds when the topic of per-
suasion deviates in a minor way from the recipi-
ents standpoint through a direct effect ofpositive mood and also when the topic is a highly
involving issue, where the positive mood means
that more supportive thoughts are likely to be
generated by the recipient.
But what if the recipient or audience is likely
to be in a negative mood that cannot be readily
neutralized or reversed by the presenter? How
should the presenter use humor to influence the
encoding of the message? Some fascinating
research by Petty and his colleagues (Wegener,Petty, & Klein, 1994) indicates that the presenter
should deliberately choose a negative frame
for an influence attempt if the recipient or
audience is known to be in a negativemood and a
positive frame if the recipient or audience is
known to be in a positive mood. A negative
frame emphasizes the negative consequences of
not adopting the advocated position, for exam-
ple, If we dont increase our research output
next year, well fall behind other leading uni-versities. A positive frame emphasizes the
positive consequences of adopting the advo-
cated position, for example, If we increase our
research output next year, we will continue to be
one of the leading universities. Notice that the
advocacy and its consequences are the same but
the first frame emphasizes the negative whereas
the second emphasizes the positive. The
researchers show that the choose the frame to
fit the mood effect works because people in anegative mood believe negative consequences
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will have a greater likelihood of occurring,
whereas people in a positive mood believe pos-
itive consequences will have a greater likelihood
of occurring. The distinction is similar to that in
operant learning theory between negative andpositive reinforcement, both of which increase
the target behavior, but through different
mechanisms. Typically, humor would be a
constraint in negative framing, with possible
exceptions including in-group ridicule, whereas
it would typically not be out of place in positive
framing. Remember, we have excluded here the
possibility of using humor beforehand to change
the recipients mood, restricting this situation to
one of having to go with the flow. In anyevent, the results of the Wegener et al.s
(1994) study demonstrate the need to take the
recipient variable into account when deciding
whether or not to inject humor into the message
and on the content of the humor.
Response variables. McGuire (1985) identifies a
series of internal responses that focus exclu-
sively on the processing of communications
leading to action outcomes but, as with othercommunication models, does not consider
the encoding, self-assessments, affective reac-
tions, and self-set goals, values and standards
that occur in parallel and interaction with the
processing of the message. The message-
processing responses as shown in Figure 1
include, attention and comprehension of the
humor episode, acceptance of (or convergence
on) one outcome, and retention and retrieval
of the outcome.
Stages of cognitive appraisal. Not all of the
cognitive appraisal responses shown in Figure 1
are involved in the processing of all managerial
humor communications. For instance, accep-
tance (or convergence in problem solving and
creativity) is not necessarily involved in the
communication of information, because com-
prehension is sufficient, although some sort of
acceptance is often implicit. Likewise, retentionand retrieval may not be necessary responses if
the action outcome is to be immediate. The
important aspect of McGuires response-
sequence approach is his emphasis on the two
broad processes of reception (attention and
comprehension of the target information) andacceptance (acceptance or convergence and
retrieval, if required). The probability of an out-
come is the joint probability of reception and
acceptance.
Humor, like other communication tactics,
may facilitate reception while inhibiting
acceptance, or vice versa. Surprisingly, tactics
rarely facilitate both reception and acceptance.
For instance, humor can produce a complex
series of effects in which attention is increasedbut comprehension of the target information is
decreased, both of these responses being within
the reception process. These contrary recep-
tions to humor may then be followed by
increased acceptance but decreased retrieval of
the conclusions within the acceptance stage of
the response process. With these complexities
in the response sequence, we can infer that
humor is not a tactic to be used lightly.
Humor has more pronounced effects on theaffective processes than the cognitive processes
shown in Figure 1, such that humor is more
likely to facilitate a positive mood and liking of
the presenter than facilitating comprehension of
the message (Martin, 2007). This may be
instrumental in the influence effects of humor.
While humorous insertions have an attention-
grabbing effect, they also tend to distract the
audience from the detection of logical flaws
with